Installing a Windows Service Application

Installing a Windows Service Application

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You can start your service application when you add predefined installers to the application and use the INSTALLUTIL tool to install it. The Installers not only install and register your service application, but also configure the resources, such as performance counters and the event logs used by the service. The installers also specify the security context for your service application. The following are some of the predefined installer classes provided by the .NET framework:

• System.ServiceProcess.ServiceProcessInstaller class: It is used to include only one instance for a Windows service application. It performs tasks that create records for all the services within an application, such as creating entries in the system registry.



• System.SystemProcess.ServiceInstaller class: It is used to include as many instances as the number of services in a Windows service application. This class performs tasks that are specific to a Windows service, such as passing the ServiceName of the service to the installation utility.



• System.Configuration.Install.Installer class: It is used to maintain a collection of custom installer objects and acts as the entry point for the installation process. The instances of the ServiceProcessInstaller class and the ServiceInstaller class can also be added to this collection.



• System.Diagnostics.EventLogInstaller class: It is used to configure the default EventLogs, such as the Application and the System Logs of the service application. This class also installs and configures custom event logs that you create for a service application.



• System.Diagnostics.PerformanceCounterInstaller class: It is used to configure the performance counters that are installed in a system. It also installs and configures the custom performance counters for your service application.



• System.Messaging.MessageQueueInstaller class: It is used to configure and install the message queues that are used to send and receive messages by a Windows service application.

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